2010/03/16: BBC: ‘Arrogance’ undid climate talksThe “disappointing” outcome of December’s climate summit was largely down to “arrogance” on the part of rich countries, according to Lord Stern. The economist told BBC News that the US and EU nations had not understood well enough the concerns of poorer nations. But, he said, the summit had led to a number of countries outlining what they were prepared to do to curb emissions.

2010/03/16: BBC: It’s still real and it’s still a problemClimate-related controversies and the outcome of the Copenhagen summit widely regarded as a failure have left a sense of hopelessness in climate policy, says Lord Chris Smith. In this week’s Green Room, he stresses the soundness of the fundamental climate science and the need to continue pushing for meaningful climate deals.

2010/03/18: ZeeNews: Kyoto protocol’s substitute unlikely by Mexico conferenceMoscow: A new legally binding document that would replace the Kyoto Protocol is unlikely to be ready by the next UN conference on climate change in Mexico, Russia’s presidential envoy on climate-related matters said. “The time frame set in Copenhagen UN conference on climate in 2009 will not let a new legally binding agreement to be achieved by the meeting in Mexico,” Alexander Bedritsky, said following a meeting of Russia’s Security Council Wednesday.

2010/03/18: BBerg: Cancun Climate Talks Get Dim Prognosis for SuccessGovernment negotiators are already writing off chances for a global treaty to fight climate change, nine months before the annual talks begin in Cancun, Mexico. Kunihiko Shimada, principal international negotiator at the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, said a deal this year is “almost impossible.” Jos Delbeke, who spearheads European Union climate policy at the European Commission, ruled out a “comprehensive legal agreement” in 2010. Their remarks call into question whether efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions are progressing after failing in Copenhagen in December. President Barack Obama’s energy proposal is bogged down in the U.S. Congress. Without a U.S. commitment, China and India, two of the fastest-growing polluters, may be reluctant to limit greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

2010/03/17: TerraDaily: Maldives president calls for reframing climate debateThe climate change debate should be reframed in economic and security terms ahead of a year-end UN summit in Mexico seeking a binding climate deal, the president of the Maldives said Wednesday. A price tag needs to be put on “the extent to which we destroy the atmosphere, the extent to which we pollute the atmosphere,” President Mohamed Nasheed said at a climate change seminar in Helsinki. Climate change was not about “hugging trees”, he said, insisting that beyond the environmental aspects it was central to future security policies, sustainable economics and human rights. “If we can have a discourse on the feasibility of renewable energy … I think that would make such a substantial impact on the policy,” he said, adding that switching to non-fossil-fuel-based energy sources like wind and solar power made “good economic sense”.

2010/03/18: EarthTimes: Germany to host international climate conference in May[…] Environment ministers from 45 states will be invited to Bonn for informal trust-building talks, to improve the chances of reaching a climate deal, Roettgen said. He stressed that the aim was not to reach any resolutions.[…] Chancellor Angela Merkel is to speak at the opening of the so-called Petersberg Climate Dialogue, on May 2-4, which is to be jointly led by Mexico and Germany.

2010/03/17: IndiaTimes: US calls 17-country green meet in AprilEven though the US climate bill is in doldrums, the Obama administration is going to organise the 17-country Major Economies Forum meeting in April to spur debate with the key players, such as India and China. The MEF is the new avtar created by the Obama administration by morphing the Major Economies Meeting that the Bush administration had earlier backed. While the Bush administration had steadfastly refused to engage in an international deal, the MEF meet is now seen as a US attempt to push other countries towards a deal more amenable to its interests.

2010/03/15: NewInt:TWMB: The dirty price of a quick fixThe World Bank is yet again on the brink of providing a loan that will have only negative effects for the poor and the environment. South Africa faces a power crisis at the moment and it is looking to the parastatal Eskom, which in turn is looking to the ever-willing World Bank to provide a US$4 billion loan. This loan is primarily intended to finance the world’s fourth biggest carbon-emitting power plant and fund similar projects that will supposedly address the issue of power in South Africa. At the end of the month we will know whether or not the World Bank will go ahead with the contract…

2010/03/16: CBC: Buying green permits being mean: studyKermit the Frog may have got it only half right when he said “it ain’t easy being green.” A new study suggests that when you’re green, it ain’t easy being nice, either. The study, conducted by two University of Toronto professors, found that consumers who bought environmentally friendly products were less likely to be altruistic and more likely to cheat and steal.

2010/03/15: ABC(Au): CSIRO chief defends climate scienceThe head of Australia’s peak science body has spoken out in defence of climate scientists, saying the link between human activity and climate change is beyond doubt. The head of the CSIRO, Dr Megan Clark, says the evidence of global warming is unquestionable, and in Australia it is backed by years of robust research. Dr Clark says climate records are being broken every decade and all parts of the nation are warming. “We are seeing significant evidence of a changing climate,” she said.

The Arctic species biodiversity report report is fodder for spinning headlines:

2010/03/17: Eureka: High Arctic species on thin iceA new assessment of the Arctic’s biodiversity reports a 26 per cent decline in species populations in the high Arctic. Populations of lemmings, caribou and red knot are some of the species that have experienced declines over the past 34 years, according to the first report from The Arctic Species Trend Index (ASTI), which provides crucial information on how the Arctic’s ecosystems and wildlife are responding to environmental change.

2010/03/18: CBC: Number of High Arctic animals decliningAnimals in the Arctic have increased in number over the last 40 years, but populations closest to the North Pole are shrinking, a new international study says. The report, commissioned by the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) and funded by the government of Canada, found that overall, the number of mammals, birds and fish in the Arctic has increased by 16 per cent since 1970. The Arctic Species Trend Index, released Wednesday at a conference in Miami, credited hunting restrictions in place for decades with the animals’ recovery. The number of geese, for example, has doubled, and certain species of whale are also recovering. The biggest recovery was in the southernmost parts of the Arctic, where the number of animals was up 46 per cent from 1970 to 2004. In sharp contrast, though, is the High Arctic, the area closest to the North Pole. The number of animals dropped by 25 per cent in the same time period, while the number of caribou was down by about one-third.

The CITES conference decided to allow the hunting and trading of polar bear parts:

2010/03/17: CBC: Canada-Russia Arctic tensions riseFresh tensions between Canada and Russia emerged Wednesday after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a session of his Security Council that his country must be prepared to defend its claims to Arctic mineral riches. Medvedev predicted climate change will spark further conflicts as ice melts, exposing new areas for exploration. “Regrettably, we have seen attempts to limit Russia’s access to the exploration and development of the Arctic mineral resources,” he said. “That’s absolutely inadmissible from the legal viewpoint and unfair given our nation’s geographical location and history.” In a direct response, Canada said it would reassert its sovereignty over the Far North at what is shaping up to be a controversial five-country Arctic summit it is hosting in two weeks in Chelsea, Que., outside Ottawa.

2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Prepare for new farming revolution, CSIRO saysAustralia’s peak scientific body, farmers and supermarkets say they are gearing up for a new Green Revolution. In 50 years the world’s population will be more than nine billion people, supplies of fertiliser could be severely depleted, and competition for land will have increased. According to CSIRO scientist Peter Carberry, these factors, combined with climate change, will challenge our agriculture industry like never before. Mr Carberry is deputy director of the CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, established by the Federal Government earlier this year to reduce the carbon footprint of Australia’s land use, while boosting productivity. He says we are facing an agricultural revolution similar to the Green Revolution that followed World War II. “The first Green Revolution was a revolution that was essential to feed the world’s population at the time. We have to do it again, but the parameters have changed, which makes it a challenge for science,” he said.

2010/03/16: Stanford: New report reveals the environmental and social impact of the ‘livestock revolution’A new report by an international research team explores the impact of the global livestock industry on the environment, the economy and human health. Global meat production has tripled in the past three decades and could double its present level by 2050, according to a new report on the livestock industry by an international team of scientists and policy experts. The impact of this “livestock revolution” is likely to have significant consequences for human health, the environment and the global economy, the authors conclude.

2010/03/21: ABC(Au): Cyclone downgraded as north Queensland assesses damageTropical Cyclone Ului is leaving its mark on north Queensland after making landfall early this morning. The cyclone crossed the coast near Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays region at category three at about 1.30am AEST. Winds of up 200-kilometres-an-hour were felt near the eye of the storm and strong winds continue to batter the coastline. The cyclone has now been downgraded to category one.

2010/03/20: CNN: Australia braces for cyclone [Ului]Eight areas along Australia’s eastern coast are under disaster declaration – They are in the predicted path of the storm – Declaration gives emergency officials authority to do mandatory evacuations – Storm can bring winds of 170 km/hr (105 mph) and flooding, forecasters warn

2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Cyclone preparations step upTwo islands off the central Queensland coast are being evacuated with severe Tropical Cyclone Ului in the Coral Sea now forecast to make landfall this weekend. The category four cyclone is expected to begin moving closer to the Queensland coast on Friday and impact the central Queensland coasts on the weekend.

2010/03/15: BBC: [Cat 4] Cyclone Tomas hits northern FijiA powerful cyclone has hit northern Fiji, damaging buildings and crops, and forcing at least 5,000 people to leave their homes. Cyclone Tomas, a category four storm, is packing winds of up to 170km (106 miles) an hour. The storm is forecast to intensify…

2010/03/17: PhysOrg: Greenhouse Gas Regulations Might Aggravate Climate ChangeUniversity of Arizona engineers find swapping one chemical for another may actually result in greater energy use, compounding the problems the new chemical was supposed to fix. The U.S. government wants to regulate the use of hydrofluorocarbons, which could lead to an increased use of hydrofluoroethers as a replacement. Both are greenhouse gases, and research at the University of Arizona indicates that HFEs might be worse for the environment than HFCs.

2010/03/15: Reuters: Deep-sea volcanoes play key climate role: scientistsA vast network of under-sea volcanoes pumping out nutrient-rich water in the Southern Ocean plays a key role in soaking up large amounts of carbon dioxide, acting as a brake on climate change, scientists say. A group of Australian and French scientists have shown for the first time that the volcanoes are a major source of iron that single-celled plants called phytoplankton need to bloom and in the process soak up CO2, the main greenhouse gas. Oceans absorb about a quarter of mankind’s CO2 from burning fossil fuels and deforestation, with the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica among the largest ocean “carbon sinks.” Phytoplankton underpin the ocean’s food chain. When they die or are eaten, they carry large amounts of carbon that they absorb to the bottom of the ocean, locking up the carbon for centuries.

2010/03/15: CBC: Arctic crystals hold evidence of early oceanThe theory that oceans covered the Earth four billion years ago has received a boost from a study of crystals found in Greenland. The research, published in the current issue of the journal Lithosphere, also sheds light on the processes that formed the continents and crust in the Archaen Era between 2.5 and four billion years ago.

2010/03/19: BBC: Consortium wins big weather prizeA consortium led by Thales Alenia Space of France will enter into negotiations for a 1.3bn-euro (£1.2bn) contract to build Europe’s next weather satellites. The TAS group was selected after a competitive process run by the European Space Agency (Esa). The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) system will comprise six satellites, with the first spacecraft likely to be ready for launch in 2016.

2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Butterflies ‘fly early as planet warms’Australian scientists say they have uncovered a “causal link” between the early emergence of a common butterfly and human-induced global warming. Dr Michael Kearney of the University of Melbourne and his colleagues report their study on the butterfly heteronympha merope in this week’s issue of Royal Society journal Biology Letters. “It’s now coming out about 10 days earlier than it was 60 years ago,” Dr Kearney said.

2010/03/17: OpenDem: The Battle for Khimki ForestThe plan to construct a section of the new Moscow-St.Petersburg motorway through the legally-protected Khimki Forest Park will destroy a rare eco-system. Dogged local resistance has turned this into a national, even international issue. But it has not derailed the plan

2010/03/17: TDC: Saving carbon, by burning forestsNew study suggests prescribed burns can reduce carbon dioxide emissions generated by forest fires. By now everyone knows that forests sequester carbon and that forest fires pump enormous amounts of that stored carbon skyward. But researchers are now coming to a somewhat contrary conclusion: Carefully controlled burns can help reduce forest carbon emissions. The most recent study, from the National Center of Atmospheric Research and Northern Arizona University, looked at dry forests of the western United States and discovered that prescribed burns can reduce carbon fire emissions by nearly a quarter throughout the West — and by as much as 60 percent in some forests.

2010/03/20: PhysOrg: Sandstorms blanket Beijing in yellow dustBeijing authorities have issued a rare level five pollution warning, signalling hazardous conditions Beijingers woke up Saturday to find the Chinese capital blanketed in yellow dust, as a sandstorm caused by a severe drought in the north and in Mongolia swept into the city. The storm, which earlier buffeted parts of northeastern China, brought strong winds and cut visibility in the capital.

2010/03/14: CBC: Storm in northeastern U.S. kills 6At least six people died and more than 500,000 households lost electricity after weekend torrential storms tore through northeastern United States. Strong winds and heavy rains uprooted trees, downed power lines and flooded creeks in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania at the peak of Saturday’s storm.

2010/03/19: CNN: Sandbags in place as Red River risesRed River was 17 feet above its flood stage in Fargo, North Dakota, on Friday afternoon – River expected to crest this weekend, but not as high as last year’s record 40.8 feet – More than 1 million sandbags have been filled in Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota – Despite flooding, Fargo mayor says, “we’re in good shape today”

2010/03/17: CBC: Sandbags filled as Red River risesVolunteers in North Dakota filled thousands of sandbags on Tuesday in the hopes of avoiding some of the damage from the fast-rising waters of the Red River. Contractors also constructed clay levees to help protect nearby homes from the murky waters. Officials don’t expect the river to get as high as last year’s record flood, but near Fargo and neighbouring Moorhead, Minn., the river is forecast to crest Sunday about six metres above the flood stage.

2010/03/17: PhysOrg: China drought leaves millions short of waterMeteorological officials have said the drought is the worst in 100 years in some areas Millions of people face drinking water shortages in southwestern China because of a once-a-century drought that has dried up rivers and threatens vast farmlands, state media reported Wednesday. The drought has gripped huge areas of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan provinces, the Guangxi region, and the mega-city of Chongqing for months, with rainfall 60 percent below normal since September, the Global Times said.

2010/03/16: MSNBC: Forecast: Flood risk for third of U.S. — ‘Potentially historic’ in some areas, government saysMore than a third of the contiguous United States faces a high or above average flood risk this spring, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday. “We are looking at potentially historic flooding in some parts of the country this spring,” Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a news briefing while presenting the government’s spring outlook. NOAA oversees the weather service. The highest threat is in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa. Those areas have already seen some flooding and rivers are rising quickly, especially the Red River between North Dakota and Minnesota.

2010/03/16: EUO: China exploring rail routes to EuropeChina is exploring the possibility of extending its high-speed train network as far as Europe, potentially cutting rail travel time between London and Beijing to as little as two days. Officials hope to see the project completed over the next ten years, enabling passengers to travel the roughly 8,000 kilometre journey at speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour.

2010/03/20: SMH: Home insulation scheme worth keeping, say green groupsConservation groups are calling on the federal government not to abandon the troubled home insulation program, pointing to its considerable environmental benefits. Despite its flaws, the scheme should be seen as a plank in the government’s climate change policy, the groups argue. The Total Environment Centre says that the 1.1 million houses that have already been insulated will save more than 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions over 10 years, the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the road. Household energy bills will also be reduced, by up to 25 per cent in centrally heated insulated homes, and by up to 18 per cent in space-heated homes. The environmental impacts of the botched scheme have been largely overlooked as attention has focused on safety issues, but the Total Environment Centre and the Australian Conservation Foundation have called for it to be retained in some form.

2010/03/15: BBC: Coal power station plan under wayThe first stage of a planning process to build a coal-fired power station in Ayrshire is to get under way on Monday. Ayrshire Power wants to build a power station with experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology on a site at Hunterston near Largs. If its proposal succeeds, the plant would be the first in the UK.

2010/03/18: Eureka: Giant sequoias yield longest fire history from tree ringsA 3,000-year record from 52 of the world’s oldest trees shows that California’s western Sierra Nevada was droughty and often fiery from 800 to 1300, according to new research. Scientists reconstructed the 3,000-year history of fire by dating fire scars on ancient giant sequoia trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park. Individual giant sequoias can live more than 3,000 years. “It’s the longest tree-ring fire history in the world, and it’s from this amazing place with these amazing trees.” said lead author Thomas W. Swetnam of the University of Arizona in Tucson. “This is an epic collection of tree rings.”

2010/03/08: Monbiot: The UnpersuadablesIn fighting for science, we subscribe to a comforting illusion: that people can be swayed by the facts. There is one question that no one who denies manmade climate change wants to answer: what would it take to persuade you? In most cases the answer seems to be nothing.

2010/03/15: BBerg: China, Not UN, Controls Carbon Offsets, Stanford SaysChina’s control over the prices of power from wind is dictating the supply of tradable emission credits in the UN carbon market, the world’s second biggest, according to a report from Stanford University. The board overseeing the United Nations carbon market is forced to rely on data from China to judge when windfarms qualify for emissions credits, said Richard Morse, a Stanford University research associate and co-author of the report. The board, established to channel funds to greenhouse-gas projects in developing nations, rejected 16 Chinese windfarms since November, including submissions backed by EDF SA, Essent NV and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. To be eligible for UN credits, projects must show they aren’t economically viable without such assistance. The rules are designed to weed out projects that don’t add to overall emission reduction. Questions in China and India, where governments set prices and data can’t be independently verified, threaten investments in sustainable energy, Morse said.

2010/03/16: IndiaTimes: Race for climate top job hots upNew Delhi: The race for the UN’s top climate change job is set to get more intense with the number of candidates in the fray increasing. After India and South Africa nominated candidates, Indonesia and Costa Rica too made known their ambitions for the post of UNFCCC executive secretary.

2010/03/18: BizGreen: Splits emerge over UN approach to climate talksSecretary-General and climate envoy cross swords over the extent to which UN talks should be supported by separate negotiations between top polluters A potential split at the highest levels of the UN over how to move forward with international climate change negotiations emerged yesterday as Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and his top climate change envoy, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, appeared to disagree on how the talks should proceed. Speaking on the sidelines of a biofuels summit in Amsterdam earlier this week, Brundtland was quoted as saying she expected the negotiations to proceed along more of a “double track system” where the UN process is mirrored by more informal talks based on the Copenhagen Accord that was agreed late last year.

2010/03/16: BWeek: UN chief wants UN in charge of climate talksSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday the United Nations will remain in charge of talks on a new global climate change accord, dismissing a shift to negotiations with a streamlined group of countries suggested by U.N. climate envoy Gro Harlem Brundtland. Ban said the former Norwegian prime minister’s statement that talks will move to “a double track system” was “not desirable at this time.” “That I regard as her personal view,” he said, stressing that a new climate change agreement should be negotiated within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

2010/03/17: CFO: CER market grinds to a halt, exchanges suspend tradingThe market for secondary certified emission reductions (CERs) has seized up today, following confirmation that credits previously used for compliance in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) have been sold back into the market — prompting two exchanges to suspend CER trading. Traders told Carbon Finance that even in the over-the-counter market, very little CER volume has gone through today, while the European Climate Exchange (ECX) — which today changed its rules to preclude such CERs being delivered into its contracts — has not seen any activity in its CER futures.

2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Hungary tracing CER sales as carbon trade stallsHungary on Wednesday said it would look into how carbon emissions permits it had sold were illegally reused, as trading in the paper stalled, posing a new challenge to an EU scheme meant to fight climate change. Paris-based emissions exchange BlueNext said earlier on Wednesday it had suspended trading in spot certified emissions reductions (CERs) after it found re-used CERs had traded on its exchange, prompting rival Nordpool to follow suit, as a precaution. Wednesday’s developments are the latest setback to the European Union’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). Last year fraudsters perpetrated a 5 billion euro pan-EU VAT fraud, adding to technical and over-supply glitches in its five-year history, while it now faces low prices in the wake of recession. Last week Hungary said it had sold carbon offsets or CERs to a Hungarian trading house, with the understanding that these would not be used in the EU ETS, where companies had already surrendered them to count against their emissions targets. The EU Commission’s environment spokesman Joe Hennon said on Wednesday the EU executive was working on a solution to close the loophole in the scheme. But it emerged traders had indeed sold some of the used CERs on BlueNext, leading to its own trade suspension and that of Nordic electricity market operator Nordpool.

2010/03/15: Eureka: Urban CO2 domes increase deaths, poke hole in cap-and-trade proposalEveryone knows that carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas driving climate change, is a global problem. Now a Stanford study has shown it is also a local problem, hurting city dwellers’ health much more than rural residents’, because of the carbon dioxide “domes” that develop over urban areas. That finding, said researcher Mark Z. Jacobson, exposes a serious oversight in current cap-and-trade proposals for reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases, which make no distinction based on a pollutant’s point of origin. The finding also provides the first scientific basis for controlling local carbon dioxide emissions based on their local health impacts.

2010/03/16: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen activist trial: ‘I can’t see what evidence there is for the charges’Australian honours student ‘indignant’ over charges of organising violence and disorder at climate summit as trial opensNatasha Verco, an Australian honours student, and Noah Weiss, an American citizen who lives in Denmark, will face similar charges in a trial which is due to last all week.Verco, who has organised non-violent direct action in her native country and who has been part of the Climate Justice Action (CJA) network in the lead-up to the summit in Copenhagen, has been charged with organising violence, organising public disorder, significant damage to property, and organising disorder during the international talks on climate change which took place in Copenhagen last year. If found guilty, Verco faces a maximum of twelve and a half years in prison.

2010/03/15: SciAm: Texas Messes with HistoryLong a proponent of including nonscientific creationism in the biology curriculum, the Texas State Board of Education last week further illustrated its willingness to sacrifice accuracy for ideology by excluding Thomas Jefferson from a list of influential historical figures.

2010/03/15: SF Gate: Governors seek wind energy boostA coalition representing governors of 29 states is urging the federal government to take steps to boost wind energy, such as a renewable electricity standard requiring utilities to produce at least 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2012. The bipartisan Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition plans to make the recommendations Tuesday in a report to Congress and the White House.

2010/03/16: CSM: Governors prod Washington on renewable energyA group of 29 state governors has for the first time submitted to the White House and Congress a list of recommendations to implement renewable energy nationwide. The move reveals growing impatience with Washington’s inability to put forward a new energy-climate bill to stimulate growth of solar and wind industry jobs. With the capitol still consumed with healthcare legislation and the likelihood of a national bill that combines climate and energy dimming rapidly, many states with renewable energy in their backyards are agitating for job creation from wind, solar, and biomass energy development. In particular, they want a national renewable electricity standard in a new energy bill. Such a standard, the governors say, should set a minimum requirement for electric utilities to get at least 10 percent of their electricity from sources like solar, wind, and biopower by 2012 — that would put them on track to reach 20 percent by 2020, a target being weighed in Congress.

2010/03/18: BBerg: Christie Seeks CO2 Revenue to Close N.J. Budget GapNew Jersey Governor Chris Christie wants to use funds from carbon-dioxide-permit auctions in the U.S. Northeast’s cap-and-trade program to help close the state’s $10.7 billion deficit. Taking $65.2 million from the auctions to help cover the budget gap was one of the necessary “hard choices,” Christie, a Republican, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York today.

2010/03/17: SF Gate: Farmers hail increased water allowanceThe sprinklers will go on this summer in the Central Valley, but not as much as farmers would like. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday that growers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will receive 25 percent of the water they were hoping to get. That may not sound good on the surface, but it is better than the 5 percent the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was planning to give them before a series of winter storms drenched the state and left a blanket of snow in the Sierra.

2010/03/15: BBerg: EPA Studying Own Carbon-Trading System, Official SaysThe Obama administration is considering a carbon-trading system under existing law if Congress doesn’t pass cap-and-trade legislation that allows companies to buy and sell the right to pollute, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said today. The existing Clean Air Act “could enable us to include emissions trading” within agency regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists have linked to climate change, Anna Marie Wood, a senior policy analyst at the EPA, said at an event in Washington hosted by the American Bar Association.

2010/03/19: NYT:GW: States Take Sides in Greenhouse Gas ‘Endangerment’ BrawlStates took their places in the trenches this week as they joined the court fight either for or against U.S. EPA’s “endangerment” finding for greenhouse gases. Sixteen states asked a federal appeals court this week to become parties in what has grown to be a major legal fight pitting EPA, states and environmental groups against industries, global warming skeptics and other state challengers. Petitioners in the case are asking the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review EPA’s determination that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. That finding came in response to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the agency has the authority to regulate the heat-trapping emissions using the Clean Air Act (Greenwire, Feb. 17). The court consolidated the 16 petitions challenging EPA’s endangerment finding into one lawsuit, Coalition for Responsible Regulation Inc., et al., v. EPA. Yesterday marked the deadline for parties to file motions to intervene in the case.

2010/03/19: Reuters: US states sue EPA to stop greenhouse gas rulesStates want EPA to reopen endangerment hearings – About as many states support EPA’s climate findingAt least 15 U.S. states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to stop it from issuing rules controlling greenhouse gas emissions until it reexamines whether the pollution harms human health. Florida, Indiana, South Carolina and at least nine other states filed the petitions in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, states said. They joined petitions filed last month by Virginia, Texas and Alabama. The Obama administration has long said it would attack greenhouse gas emissions with EPA regulation if Congress failed to pass a climate bill.

2010/03/19: WJZ: Environmental Groups Challenge Va.’S EPA LawsuitTwo environmental groups are challenging Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s legal action to block federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Wetlands Watch filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington late Thursday supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings that greenhouse gases are dangerous to people. The groups say Cuccinelli’s challenge to the EPA findings is an “unwarranted stall tactic” that is a dangerous distraction from the impacts of climate change.

2010/03/16: TheHill: House Republicans hit SEC on climate disclosureTwenty-one House Republicans led by Rep. Bill Posey (Fla.) are alleging that a Securities and Exchange Commission initiative that presses companies to disclose information about climate risks will hurt corporations and investors alike. In a letter to the SEC Monday, the lawmakers criticize the SEC’s recent “guidance” to public companies — they call it an “onerous new mandate” and note that it wasn’t steered through Congress or a formal rule-making process. The lawmakers allege the initiative will create confusion and uncertainty for companies.

2010/03/17: NYT:GW: Senators Share Emission Bill’s Details With Industry GroupsLawmakers at the heart of Senate energy and climate negotiations revealed key details today of their legislative proposal during a closed-door meeting with major industry groups they are courting in hopes of winning over Senate moderates and avoiding an expensive advertising war. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) shared an eight-page outline of their draft legislation that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next four decades, including provisions to limit business costs while ramping up domestic production of oil, gas and nuclear power. According to several sources in the meeting room, the bill calls for greenhouse gas curbs across multiple economic sectors, with a 2020 target of reducing emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels and an 80 percent limit at midcentury. Power plant emissions would be regulated in 2012, with other major industrial sources being phased in starting in 2016. In a bow to industry demands, the senators’ proposal would pre-empt U.S. EPA climate regulations under the Clean Air Act and halt dozens of state climate laws and regulations now on the books. Also, only facilities that release 25,000 tons per year of greenhouse gases must participate in the climate program. Additional layers of certainty for industry come via a “hard price collar” that limits greenhouse gas allowances to between $10 and $30 per ton tagged to inflation, with an increase at a to-be-determined “fixed rate” over time. The legislation would also set aside a “strategic reserve” of 4 billion greenhouse gas credits that could be released into the market to help control price volatility fluctuations.

2010/03/18: Reuters: Deal nearing on Senate climate bill: lawmakerThe Senate is close to wrapping up talks ahead of introducing a compromise climate change bill, said a top Democratic lawmaker who discussed ideas with industry groups on Wednesday. “We’re planning to button up our efforts somewhere I hope next week,” Senator John Kerry told reporters after meeting with a coalition that represents automakers, forestry and paper companies, Big Oil, steel, mining, electricity and others.

2010/03/18: TheHill: Auto alliance opposes Murkowski on EPA greenhouse gas regsThe Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is officially opposed to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) effort to block EPA from regulating greenhouse gases through a congressional resolution of disapproval. The Alliance, which includes 11 major carmakers, worries the resolution to overturn EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare would derail an agreement reached with the Obama administration on higher fuel efficiency standards. The so-called endangerment finding is the legal underpinning of EPA’s efforts to regulate carbon emissions. Automakers like the agreement they reached with the administration because it allows them to operate under one federal standard and not the “patchwork quilt” of state fuel efficiency regulations they feared.

2010/03/16: BBC: Ads ‘exaggerated climate change’Two government press adverts which used nursery rhymes to raise awareness of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). It said the advertisements went beyond mainstream scientific consensus in asserting that climate change would cause flooding and drought. A total of 939 people complained to the ASA about the “Act on CO2″ campaign.

2010/03/15: NYT:CW: U.K. Faces a Major Skills Shortage as Renewable Energy Deadline LoomsThe United Kingdom is facing a crisis that could cripple its efforts to massively boost the amount of electricity it gets from renewable energy sources and cut greenhouse gas emissions — both within the next decade. It simply does not have enough engineers, designers, scientists, physicists and mathematicians to do the job, let alone enough skilled technicians to install and connect the machinery.

2010/03/19: EurActiv: Oil industry emissions ‘underestimated’, study warnsAn underestimation of the expected surge in emissions from oil-based fossil fuels could undermine the EU’s climate goals, the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) warned yesterday (18 March). Greenhouse gas emissions from oil will reach record levels in future, according to a new study presented by the EBB. It urged the European Commission to take this into account in the implementation of its fuel quality and renewable energy directives so as not to give fossil fuels an advantage over other fuels.

2010/03/17: EurActiv: Potocnik calls for ‘profound greening’ of EU farm policiesSustainable agricultural practices play a crucial role in ensuring both environmental and food security, as farmers manage up to 50% of EU land, participants in an agriculture forum stressed yesterday (16 March). Addressing the 3rd Forum for the Future of Agriculture in Brussels, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik even went as far as saying he sees “somewhere in the future” an EU policy called the ‘Common Agricultural and Environmental Policy’. “We need nothing less than a CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] that respects [soil and water] and promotes practices that use them in a sustainable and resource-efficient way. We also need a CAP that can invest in protecting and restoring them when they have been degraded, contaminated or polluted,” Potocnik continued, calling for a “profound greening” of the CAP.

2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Czechs Seek To Temper Solar Investment BoomThe Czech Republic does not spring to mind as one of Europe’s hot spots, yet an over-used subsidy scheme has created a bonanza for solar power that has ignited fears of a spike in energy prices and grid instability. Lawmakers are now gearing up to cut the country’s generous solar incentives, which investors say is needed to cool off the boom that made the Czechs the third-largest builders of solar capacity behind Germany and Italy last year.

2010/03/17: PlanetArk: Poland Moves To End Dispute With EC On CarbonPoland will ask the European Commission for a new carbon dioxide emission permits quota of 208.5 million tons a year, it said in a statement on Tuesday, in a compromise likely to help end a long dispute with Brussels. Poland had originally requested 284.6 million a year of the permits, called EUAs, under the bloc’s scheme to fight global warming. But it was only given 208.5 million by the European Commission. A European tribunal then ruled that the decision to grant Warsaw the lower amount was unjustified, opening the way for new negotiations. “We were arguing for more, but the Commission was arguing for an even tighter limit than 208.5 and that’s what we have settled for,” a Polish source close to the negotiations told Reuters.

2010/03/16: EurActiv: Commission holds on to soil protection lawAmid resistance from EU ministers, Environment Commissioner Janez Potoc(nik has defended an EU directive on soil by claiming that national policies are not delivering and land management increasingly affects cross-border issues like climate change, biodiversity and water pollution.

2010/03/15: EurActiv: Climate target divides environment ministersEU environment ministers are meeting today (15 March) to debate their strategy for international climate negotiations, but no consensus is emerging about whether the EU should raise its target for greenhouse gas emission reductions for 2020. One of the central topics to be discussed is whether the EU should hold on to its pledge to reduce emissions by 30% by 2020 only if other countries make similar moves, or make the upgrade unilaterally, diplomats said. Eastern European countries are taking the approach that the EU must first come up with a methodology to analyse how other countries’ pledges compare, one senior official said. Other sceptics of a unilateral move include Italy and Finland. Their approach is contrasted by a group of Western member states including the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, which think it is in Europe’s own interest to move to 30%, the diplomat explained. Currently, the EU has a unilateral goal of reducing its emissions by 20% by 2020.

2010/03/18: Reuters: Australian laws to promote building efficiencyOwners of large commercial buildings in Australia will have to disclose energy efficiency information when putting buildings up for sale or lease, under laws introduced in parliament on Thursday. Assistant Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the laws were designed to promote energy efficiency in large commercial buildings, and will help Australia curb greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for global warming.

2010/03/16: ABC(Au): Opposition rejects climate plan studyThe Federal Opposition has rejected a new study which says the Coalition’s climate plan will not cut emissions by as much as it claims. ClimateWorks Australia has made the finding while devising its own plan combining the Government’s carbon-price and the Opposition’s direct-action measures.

2010/03/16: ABC(Au): McGauran attacks CSIRO on climate changeA Liberal Senator has accused the Federal Government of turning the CSIRO into a political puppet on the issue of climate change. Victorian Senator Julian McGauran made the comments following the release of a CSIRO report which concluded that climate change is affecting Australia and humans are contributing to it.

2010/03/16: ABC(Au): Climate blueprint could slash emissionsA new report says Australia could cut its emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 through measures which would cost households less than $4 a week. ClimateWorks Australia, a partnership between Monash University and the philanthropic Myer Foundation, is launching the report today and hopes the new blueprint will kickstart the stalled climate debate. The detailed report is broadly a hybrid of the Government and Opposition’s positions, but promises to deliver carbon reductions five times greater than the two major parties have promised.

2010/03/20: People’s Daily: China speeds up offshore wind power constructionChina will give top priority to developing offshore wind power projects to boost its flourishing wind power industry in 2010, according to a senior energy official . The government would put large-scale offshore wind power concession projects out to tender, said Shi Lishan, deputy director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Bureau at a recent seminar sponsored by Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA).

2010/03/17: CanWest: Binding climate treaty may take years, Prentice saysIt could take years to turn last December’s international climate change agreement into a legally binding treaty, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Tuesday. Speaking to a parliamentary committee reviewing spending in his department, Prentice said the international community likely would continue negotiating future commitments and conditions of a treaty to reduce heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere and adapt to climate change well beyond the end of 2010.

2010/03/15: CanWest: Privacy rules hinder investigation of rogue scientists — Government wants stiffer rules for publically funded researchersThe federal government has been pushing Canada’s largest research council to release the names of scientists who fudge research results, plagiarize reports or misspend grant money, according to federal documents obtained by Canwest News Service. But the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council has yet to change its rules, despite pointed recommendations from its political masters. The council, which distributes $1 billion in federal funding every year to thousands of researchers across the country, says federal privacy laws prevent it from identifying scientists involved in misconduct, or their universities.

2010/03/18: Guardian(UK): Canadian government ‘hiding truth about climate change’, report claimsCanada’s climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 non-governmental organisations. “This government says they take climate change seriously but they do nothing and try to hide the truth about climate change,” said Graham Saul, representing Climate Action Network Canada (CAN), which produced the report “Troubling Evidence”. “We want Canadians to understand what’s going on with this government,” Saul told IPS.

2010/03/14: Yahoo:CP: Demise of Canadian climate research would impact global initiatives: scientistsWhen government funding for a foundation dedicated to climate research dries up at the end of the year, scientists say the aftershocks of its departure will be felt not only in Canada but by researchers around the globe. The 2010 federal budget, unveiled this month, offered no new cash to the decade-old Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, a group that has been financing research on everything from melting glaciers to drought on the Prairies to the thawing permafrost.

2010/03/15: CanWest: Climate-change scientists feel ‘muzzled': documents — Communications policy reduces interviews by 80%A dramatic reduction in Canadian media coverage of climate change science issues is the result of the Harper government introducing new rules in 2007 to control interviews by Environment Canada scientists with journalists, says a newly released federal document. “Scientists have noticed a major reduction in the number of requests, particularly from high profile media, who often have same-day deadlines,” said the Environment Canada document. “Media coverage of climate change science, our most high-profile issue, has been reduced by over 80 per cent.” The analysis reviewed the impact of a new federal communications policy at Environment Canada, which required senior federal scientists to seek permission from the government prior to giving interviews. In many cases, the policy also required them to get approval from supervisors of written responses to the questions submitted by journalists before any interview, said the document, obtained in an investigation into the government’s views and policies on global-warming science that was conducted by Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental groups.

2010/03/20: ChronicleHerald: Harper needs lessons on facts of lifeStephen Harper says he won’t close the door on offering family planning services to the world’s poorest women as part of his much-touted maternal health strategy.Not good enough.Let’s see concrete plans and directed funding and an acknowledgement that family planning — that’s contraception AND abortion — is central to sexual health, and without it, our big plan to wow the G8 is a laughingstock.

2010/03/19: EdSun: Easy ammunition on family planningStephen Harper has so botched up the government spin promoting maternal and child health during the G8 that he’s left the impression he’s against contraception. Perception is everything in politics so the PM had better clarify the situation before … well, before he feels the need for another prorogation to escape the opposition. Consider this zinger from NDP Leader Jack Layton the other day: “Is Canada’s signature initiative at the G8 going to be the ‘no condoms for Africa’ strategy?” Likewise, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett wondered whether the Conservatives were going to follow in the footsteps of the right-wing administration of former U.S. president George W. Bush. For some reason, the Tories have been reluctant to include reproductive health issues, such as contraception, as part of their maternal health initiative during the June G8.

2010/03/19: TStar: Bible, not medical texts, guide HarperDid Prime Minister Stephen Harper put a condom instead of a thinking cap on his head when, two months ago, he announced his now internationally ridiculed policy on “maternal and child health” that he’s going to promote at the coming G8 summit? How else to explain his intransigence on women’s access to family planning — as if a mother’s ability to have no more babies than she can feed, clothe and protect has nothing to do with either’s health? Has he never heard the expression AIDS orphan? Obstetric fistula? High-risk pregnancy? And we’re not even talking about abortion here. This is about the pill, IUDs, diaphragms … and education. Sure Harper appeared to flip-flop Thursday by saying he’s not “closing doors” but so far they’ve been slammed shut.

2010/03/17: G&M: Conservatives accused of ‘willfully ignoring’ contraception researchJack Layton accused Stephen Harper today of adopting a “no-condoms-for-Africa strategy” for the government’s signature initiative at this summer’s G8 summit. The NDP Leader said it was “incredible” that “the Foreign Minister is going around saying that contraception does not save lives.” He added: “How can a program aimed at reducing maternal mortality not allow for any contraception as part of the program?” Mr. Layton was raising concerns about comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon yesterday that birth control will not be part of the “signature” G8 initiative on maternal health. Mr. Cannon told a Commons committee the government’s plan is aimed at saving lives of mothers in poor countries and contraception doesn’t fit with that. But neither Mr. Cannon nor the Prime Minister, who were both in Question Period, responded. Rather, International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda fielded the questions, sticking closely to her script.

2010/03/17: CBC: Mackenzie pipeline needs push: backerMore delays for the $16.2-billion Mackenzie natural gas project could hurt those in the Northwest Territories waiting for Arctic gas to start flowing, but one of the project’s backers remains hopeful the pipeline will become reality. “People should not be concerned,” says Fred Carmichael of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, one of the companies in the pipeline consortium led by Imperial Oil.

2010/03/18: CanWest: Pine beetle epidemic will have continent-wide economic impact: reportA new report on the mountain pine beetle epidemic describes it as one of North America’s largest natural environmental disasters that will put an estimated 16 major sawmills out of business in B.C. and lead to long-term lumber shortages in the United States. Canadian lumber production is not expected to recover for the remainder of the century, one of the report authors said Thursday. “We sort of think lumber production has peaked forever, at least relative to our lifetimes and our children’s lifetimes.” said Russell Taylor, president of the International Wood Markets Group. The Vancouver-based consulting company is one of three consultants who prepared the report for lumber industry clients. Interior sawmills are expected to start running out of good timber within three to five years according to the report.

2010/03/19: CBC: Pine beetle won’t kill forestry, B.C. saysThe pine beetle attack won’t wipe out B.C.’s Interior forest industry — despite pessimistic predictions in a recent report — the province’s forests minister says. Pat Bell was commenting on a forecast by analysts at Vancouver’s International Wood Markets Group, which warns the peak of sawlog availability will occur within three to five years, after which the B.C. Interior’s industry is headed for serious downsizing.

2010/03/16: CanWest: Environmentalists open two fronts in oilsands fight — Industry on offensive after release of documentary, WWF reportCanada’s oilsands were the target of a major public relations offensive in Britain on Monday with the nationwide première of the film Dirty Oil narrated by Canadian actor Neve Campbell, and the simultaneous release of a World Wildlife Fund report claiming that a host of global ills — including four million child deaths annually from poor sanitation and other causes — could be prevented by diverting the billions being invested by oil giants in Alberta to UN health programs. “This report has thrown up some quite staggering statistics in terms of how this money could be spent trying to save the planet rather than destroying it,” said Colin Butfield, the WWF’s head of campaigns in Britain, in a statement announcing the study. The latest public relations salvo against the oilsands industry is part of an ongoing battle by British environmentalists and ethical-investment advocates to discourage multinational petroleum companies such as BP and Shell from increasing their stakes in the contentious Canadian energy source.

Well, now we know how effective that shareholder’s revolt was:

2010/03/15: Reuters: BP takes stake in planned oil sands projectBP Plc…, will take a majority stake in a Canadian oil sands property owned by closely held Value Creation Inc, marking the British oil major’s second oil sands deal in a week as it looks to build a presence in the crude-rich region. Value Creation said BP agreed to develop and operate the 185,000-acre Terre de Grace block in northern Alberta. Terms were not disclosed but Columba Yeung, Value Creation’s chief executive, said the final price will depend on the results of drilling undertaken by the partners to determine the size of the property’s reserves.

2010/03/20: MetroNews: 13 stranded after ice roads turned to mud rescued, says Manitoba MountiesMuddy ice roads that stranded dozens of drivers in the wilderness and prompted 16 northern Manitoba First Nations to declare a state of emergency are proof that permanent all-season roads are needed, the province’s grand chief said Friday. Ron Evans, head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said this year’s early closure of the winter routes has left communities without building supplies and with a dwindling stockpile of fuel and food.

2010/03/17: CBC: Stuck Manitoba truckers waiting for helpSome trucking companies are still trying to figure out a way to get stranded drivers back from the shores of Wrong Lake in northern Manitoba. At least half a dozen semi-trailer units became mired when mild temperatures turned frozen roads into soft mud.

2010/03/20: CBC: N.B. Power protest rally draws hundredsHundreds of people from across New Brunswick are protesting the proposed sale of some of NB Power’s assets to Hydro-Québec, in a rally Saturday afternoon on the front lawn of the legislative assembly. Organizers claim it is the largest to date in a series of protests against the proposed $3.2-billion power deal. The front lawn of the legislative assembly is packed with people, many carrying placards demanding that the public utility keep all of its assets.

2010/03/15: Crikey: Over half your news is spin[…] Under UTS’ Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) head Wendy Bacon … more than 40 students have got up close and personal with the sticky end of the spin cycle. They’ve had to analyse, critique, question and then pick up the phone to ask the hard questions of the media and its reliance on public relations to drive news. Hard questions, because this is what came out in the wash: after analysing a five-day working week in the media, across 10 hard-copy papers, ACIJ and Crikey found that nearly 55% of stories analysed were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top of the league ladder with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations. The Sydney Morning Herald gets the wooden spoon with (only) 42% PR-driven stories for that week.

While activists search for effective communication techniques:

2010/03/15: CSM: As Climate Change debate wages on, scientists turn to Hollywood for helpKeeping the public looped in on what scientists are discovering has never been easy. For one thing, the traditional explainers — journalists — can distort, hype, or oversimplify the latest breakthroughs. But the need to communicate science broadly and clearly has never been more urgent. Understanding science helps people know “where the truth speakers are on an issue” such as climate change, says Robert Semper, the executive associate director of the Exploratorium, a hands-on science center in San Francisco. “The more educated and knowledgeable the public is about science … the more responsible they can be when it comes time for voting or expressing opinions about public policy,” adds Leslie Fink, a public affairs specialist at the National Science Foundation in Washington. The importance of getting the word out has science organizations scrambling to explore new channels, from souped up websites to asking Hollywood for help. The current climate-change furor has become the poster child for what happens when there’s a communications gap between scientists and the public. The vast majority of scientists see compelling evidence that the world’s climate is about to change significantly, and that the change is largely driven by human activity. Yet polls show public opinion becoming more skeptical about climate change.

2010/03/18: WaPo: Climate change cited as Mont. leases suspendedA federal judge has approved a first-of-its-kind settlement requiring the government to suspend 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana so it can gauge how oil field activities contribute to climate change. At issue are the greenhouse gases emitted by drilling machinery and industry practices such as venting natural gas directly into the atmosphere.

2010/03/19: PlanetArk: Ecuadoreans Appeal Allowing Of Chevron ArbitrationEcuadorean plaintiffs have appealed a U.S. judge’s decision to allow Chevron Corp to seek arbitration of a case of alleged pollution in the Amazon rainforest with a potential $27 billion liability. The plaintiffs, indigenous Ecuadoreans, filed the notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on Thursday, a week after a judge ruled in favor of the second-largest U.S. oil company in its efforts to seek international arbitration. Chevron cites violations under the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty in the case, which was originally filed in New York in 1993 and is now being heard by a court in Ecuador. The company says Ecuador breached the treaty by not forcing that court to dismiss the lawsuit, in which indigenous people say Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, damaged their health and the forest and polluted rivers while operating there.

2010/03/19: Missoulian: [U.S. District Judge Donald] Molloy suspends oil and gas leases, cites lack of climate-change analysisA federal judge in Missoula has approved a first-of-its-kind settlement requiring the government to suspend 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana so it can gauge how oilfield activities contribute to climate change. At issue are the greenhouse gases emitted by drilling machinery and industry practices such as venting natural gas directly into the atmosphere. Environmentalists – who sued when the Montana leases were sold in 2008 – argued the industry has allowed too much waste and uses inefficient technologies that could easily be updated. Under the deal approved Thursday by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, the Bureau of Land Management will suspend the 61 leases in Montana within 90 days. They will have to go through a new round of environmental reviews before the suspensions can be lifted.

2010/03/15: ABC(Au): New legal panel to focus on climate changeThe Victorian Bar is forming a panel of barristers to specialise in cases involving climate change. It is expecting to have a heavy workload, testing out new government regulations likely to be introduced to deal with global warming. Melbourne barrister Adrian Finanzio says, like it or not, climate change and lawyers have a lot in common.

2010/03/17: BBC: Iran tightens petrol rationsIran has announced it will cut the volume of its cheap petrol ration by 25% to 60 litres per vehicle per month from 21 March. Currently, each vehicle is allowed a quota of 80 litres of fuel at 10 cents a litre, with any amount needed on top of that priced at 40 cents. That compares to a UK price that has been averaging £1.12 a litre ($1.68) and is forecast to reach £1.20.

Europe can meet 100 percent of its power supply from renewable sources by 2050 if countries work together and massively invest in grids and storage, experts and politicians say. “This is not utopia but a vision that can be realized,” Michaele Schreyer, a former European Commission member, said Tuesday at an energy conference in Berlin organized by the German Green Party-affiliated Heinrich Boell Foundation.

2010/03/16: PhysOrg: Clouds and the Alternative Energy GridCalifornia’s goal of generating 33 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020 will be challenging on days when clouds shade acres of solar photovoltaic panels or when thousands of wind turbines spin more slowly during calm weather. However, researchers at the University of California, San Diego are developing sophisticated forecasting tools that will give California electricity distributors advance notice of meteorological changes that affect solar output. The technology is being developed to allow energy suppliers to more efficiently schedule their fossil-fuel fired plants or energy-storage facilities to meet the state’s demand for electricity.

2010/03/18: PlanetArk: Timminco Suspends Solar-Grade Silicon ProductionShares of Timminco Ltd dropped 13.3 percent on Wednesday after the company said it was suspending solar-grade silicon production and would not resume operations until customer demand recovered. Timminco said after markets closed on Tuesday that it expects gloomy solar energy market conditions to continue hurting demand for its products and financial results in the foreseeable future. The Toronto-based company has developed its own method of purifying silicon metal into solar-grade silicon to make solar power cells. Depressed solar-grade silicon prices are one effect of a global slump in the solar power market, which is beset by tight project funding and an oversupply of panels and parts. Timminco said its average selling price of solar-grade silicon in the fourth quarter fell to C$36 per kilogram from C$65 at the same time last year.

2010/03/17: ABC(Au): Solar proponent plans pilot projectA company planning a $400 million solar energy plant near Mildura, in north-west Victoria, says it is planning to start work next year on a pilot project at the site. The Sydney-based Silex systems yesterday finalised the purchase of the failed Solar Systems company that had originally proposed the 250 megawatt Mildura photovoltaic power plant.

2010/03/11: Yale360: The Case Against Biofuels: Probing Ethanol’s Hidden CostsDespite strong evidence that growing food crops to produce ethanol is harmful to the environment and the world’s poor, the Obama administration is backing subsidies and programs that will ensure that half of the U.S.’s corn crop will soon go to biofuel production. It’s time to recognize that biofuels are anything but green.

2010/03/21: TheAge: Melbourne storm shaping up as one of Australia’s costliestThe freak storm that hit Melbourne two weeks ago is on track to be one of the 10 most costly Australian natural disasters of the past 50 years, according to insurance experts. The Insurance Council of Australia say that insurers have so far received 79,000 claims worth $491 million, but industry experts predict that figure will go past $700 million. If so, it will surpass the $707 million figure – in 2007 dollars – set by a hailstorm in Sydney in 1986, currently the 10th most expensive insurance event since records began in 1967. It is already Victoria’s costliest storm. Only bushfires, specifically Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday, have cost the state’s insurers more.

I am reminded of the clowns on sci.env arguing there is no such thing as a fact…:

2010/03/19: LaaEx: Postmodernist Conservatism[…]What if these guys actually do hold that verification is just another opinion? That empiricism is just one way of “knowing”, and fact-checking is no better than soul-searching? These misconceptions are downright dangerous.

The nerve of these people trying not to be exploited:

2010/03/16: BizInsider: Why Nigeria Just Did Major Damage To The Oil Market, And Why It Will Be Tough To Undo [african pol]Nigeria’s controversial oil industry bill is expected to eventually pass but the government may find it tough to later shift gears as international oil firms targeted under the legislation scale back their investments. The Nigerian parliament is debating the Petroleum Industry Bill, an attempt at oil-sector reform in which Abuja can negotiate “downward” a foreign firm’s share of profits and impose higher royalties and taxes, said Peter Pham, director of the Africa Project at the New York-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy and an associate professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Meanwhile in the ‘clean coal’ saga:

2010/03/19: NYT:CW: Language of Religious Fervor Inflames Climate Change DebateApocalyptic visions and the muscular language of religious fervor are invading the climate arena, replacing issues of fact with those of faith and bringing high emotion into science — an area where it should have no place — politicians and religious leaders complain. People who say human-induced climate change is a fact that demands urgent action are described as “believers” or “climate evangelists,” while those who reject the concept are “deniers,” “skeptics” or “atheists.” Those in the middle who say they are unconvinced either way are “agnostics.” “The use of this language has become increasingly an issue,” said Colin Challen, chairman of the United Kingdom’s All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, a committee of U.K. lawmakers studying the global climate phenomenon.

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

“The new paradigm of power, coupled with its bizarre ideology of limitless progress and impossible happiness, has turned whole nations, including the United States, into monsters. We can march in Copenhagen. We can join Bill McKibben’s worldwide day of climate protests. We can compost in our backyards and hang our laundry out to dry. We can write letters to our elected officials and vote for Barack Obama, but the power elite is impervious to the charade of democratic participation. Power is in the hands of moral and intellectual trolls who are ruthlessly creating a system of neo-feudalism and killing the ecosystem that sustains the human species. And appealing to their better nature, or seeking to influence the internal levers of power, will no longer work.” -Chris Hedges

Comments

Alternative energies and “green” programs are increasing in popularity and necessity. At some universities they have alternative energy and sustainability programs, which I think is a great idea. It’s important for the younger generations to understand what impact human beings have on this planet and what we can do to help slow down how quickly we destroy all our resources. Interesting.